Part 128
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Lots More fabulous items/ideas for a Bioshock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Part 128 --- --- --- --- --- Interesting Phenomenon : Critical Mass : The interwebs content of Bioshock related art and objects and material is now 10X what there was in all the games combined. That is what the Rapture Reborn MMORPG (or one or more MMORPG for some similar popular genre) could tap into to make the MMORPG mechanism of this Player Creation Idea work in the real world (one day it will happen, etc ...) A MMORPG can have enough players who invest enough time to participate. Big Genre Solo games with Mod'ing could also have staying power. Solo games might benefit alot because the tools developed could streamline their production and make Assets available which don't need to be all newly recreated (true for all of the above). SO, after becoming a proven mechanism, and after some sufficient use, ANY new game *THAT* COMPANY WHICH IS DARING ENOUGH TO EMBARK ON SUCH A BIG PROJECT might, through reuse, vastly lower their production costs ($$$). With lowered costs, broader genres might be tapped into, which these days are avoided by the AAA gamemakers as nonviable. --- --- --- Heeeeeres Jack Daddy !!!! ' : In one of the BioShock game reviews, someone comments how stupid it was for Jack to have to turn into a Big Daddy in order to just open some door. Maybe a better idea (mine - which they never thought of or cared about) was that Tenenbaum already knew something about what the desperate Fontaine was going to do, and Big Daddy-fy-ing Jack was the way to beat that (the extra toughness/strength/armor/whatever). And so she really just used an excuse to have Jack prepared like that. (Seriously She just had to ask one of her tame Little Sister's to Open that door - being one of their project developers, she would know what conditioned 'buttons' to push with them to get it easily done.) So it is written, so it shall be done (in the MMORPG). --- --- --- '''One of Those Strange Rumors... ' : A bit like the Fontaine-Tenenbaum hookup... (in the Novel) That Sofia Lamb working WITH/FOR the Japanese in WW2 (was she running from prison? and THATS why she went to Rapture ???) and maybe even had met Suchong in Korea (controlled at that time by the Japanese ). The Japanese had got upto all kinds of nasty experimentation, which Sofia similarly seems to have no qualms about inflicting upon people. So, Strange shennanigins are alleged. --- --- --- '''Romance in New Rapture : No longer "M Splicer seeks F Splicer, has large Rat carcass to share" ... Now with some normalcy and improved civilization in New Rapture (which itself was a joining of several Factions which hadn't back-slid as much as many groups and individual had down there). I'm sure with the versatility and effectiveness of the Games Tools, all kinds of story genres can be generated for much entertaining storylines and such. Hell, the way that I see the possibilities of a comprehensive 'Stage Direction' feature, you could give the current Romance Novel an 'interactive' "Run For Its Money", with a little skill and effort. "Oh John, Is that a tumor in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me ?" "But my evil twin WAS the father of that baby... I thought I had just dreamed that !!! Oh Josephine what will we now DO ????" etc... --- --- --- Rejuvenation : Started with Vita Chamber systems (also as a mechanism to fix Citizens damaged by ADAM side-effects - which became VERY popular as ADAM use increased). Ryan is back for the MMORPG (though not as himself ... this mysterious Zeus character maybe ??) Rumors of this happening in the MMORPG storyline can be detected (things for the Players to discover, though that is usually ruined by 'posting it on Internetz'). --- --- --- Procedural Generation of Assets (Automatic Creation of Objects/Terrain/etc.. from Patterns) ''' : * Used for Assets with predefined compatible substitutions/repetitions of patterns. * May require Irregular feature correction Rules (scripted logic) to control limitations/avoid illegal/incompatible combinations and various end cases (to have things make sense as much as possible in logical combinations). * Hierarchy of features - The master Template invokes sub-Templates making up the Asset being created (those sub-templates in turn may call their own sub-templates). * Parameters set for sub-feature Templates are used to select options/control variations of those Templates (parameters to activate/select option logic and equations which determine the "instance" Object's attributes). Parameters are passed down to sub-Templates as needed (can inherit from higher up Templates). * Application of "Themes" (predefined common subfeature options) materials, external appearance (decorations, textures) and damage state/wear, etc ... can be used to cause a common flavor to be added to an Asset to make it FIT with similarly 'Themed' Assets in the same vicinity or situation. * With Parameterized Templates, Assets can be defined with a minimum amount of data (template selection plus parameter control which algorithmically creates ALL the specific detailed data defining the "instance" Object or set of Objects). * Patterns of randoms used to define a unique Object (its data) from which invoking that data and using the Templates can recreate the same Object (its full data) "on-the-fly". Objects can be defined and created with controlled random variations (coordinated by scripting to be cohesive combinations). * Objects which get modified by game interactions/events/activities have 'Mod' templates applied to them which when required can, like the original Object's creation, be invoked "on-the-fly" to RECREATE that same current state of that particular object (ie- with wear and tear, corrosion, some dirty state, damage, wet, etc...). * When the Object is stored away outside of the programs memory (like when the Player isn't nearby) it can be compressed down to this small parameterized data (minimizing what usually is a HUGE amount of specific data which would otherwise have to be saved somewhere). Likewise, when the Server sends data about an Object the Player sees in-game, that also is in a compressed data format, to speed the download. Data for numerous objects thus can get compressed for storage until they are needed again. This is also used for storage containers and Player inventory systems. The Templates are basically scripts (small programs) which take parameter data and expands into the full data the Asset Object needs to be displayed, and to interact in the game mechanics. The Templates used on the Client exist in a File Library which need only be transmitted once from the Server (unless being resent when revised) thus saving on a great deal of constant data transfer. Most games have Exact Objects in the Clients Level Files which are simply cloned when put into a Level Map (Object data imparting changes to the Objects (from its standard form) is still used, but in most games is usually much more static and simple (ex- object's current damage hitpoints imparting a 'damaged' appearance). * The Creation (preset parameters specify options, also which local 'Themes' may influence)). * The Expansion (rebuild full data when object is 'active'). * The Contraction (collapse data to a minimal encoded form for 'inactive' storage, including any mods to the original data). Templates can exist for many kinds of Types of Assets which might make use of Standard Objects and Procedurally Generated Objects. --- --- --- '''The Place Abounds with Universal Geniuses : Elizabeth (conveniently) finds a coded document left by Suchong on just how to repair his Quantum Particle Machine. Amazing that she is even simply able to find his secret lab ... She needs a 'cold cathode tube', a 'carbon dioxide scrubber', and a 'heat sink'. Heh. SO Singer, Vengeful Sociopath, and now Quantum Device Engineer/Tinkerer. Funny would have been the scene she first 'fixes' it, and turning it on there is an explosion and she looks all singed and charred/smoking (like Daffy Duck/Wile E. Coyote in cartoons), and says "Well that wasn't very good, maybe I should read the instructions this time." But we (or the hack DLC gamemakers) expect Fink and Suchong to be able to have the same amazing abilities ... Cuz. - (( NOTE - used CO2 Scrubbers were in high demand to make semi-authentic tasting Tequilla, so they are hard to come by (Elizabeth should have gone to the Juan Sanchez Distillery - also amazingly located in Fontaine's Department Store... )) --- --- --- Compute-U-lators in Columbia ?? Yeah..... NO. ''' : Automatic Auto Pilot ready to fly you to Paris .... Uh No. TV sceens in Columbia's/Finks control room ... Uh No. A Retro Com-pu-ter (?) 'screen' for Infinite BS time/technology would look like typed paper output held in a frame or a large projector 'slide', if not a telegraph ticker tape (Too many SteamPunk computer "mods" leave a LCD screen, which is way too much of an anachronism - yes they want them to function, but for a "Steam Punk" picture/presentation, some more retro mechanical overlay could be done to approximate 'retro' technology use - OR some weird metaphysical ghost writing or somesuch). Printing Telegraphy typewheel tape printers were developed around 1910, and the keyboard teletype about 10 years later. So unless we are to believe these things were developed in Columbia (along with 20000+ other needed anachronistic things - BTW virtually impossible for more than a tiny fraction of them) any such mechanism would be stolen from a Tear (which is fantasy enough, thank you very much...). Of course an operator listening to telephone messages working a special typewriter to 'cut' the page/slide which would then go to a/the projector (or maybe for big banners - printed on a diesel-powered super-typewriter) might be done at a few key installations. Its unlikely though to be any 'personal' whatever use at with that primitive state. Rapture might've used a teletype mechanism for bottom-of-the-screen moving TV text, and certainly for printing news boards the TV camera would be pointed at. So Rapture using TV could replicate the output accessible by every home/bar/workplace. Scroll boards with repeated News updates for those generic/public 'informative' TV channels would be logical. --- --- --- '''Combat Complexity Connundrum : With more complicated MMORPG tactics (or more potential options or many more appropriate actions/counter-actions/tactics) the Player likely needs some (more) time to think in the middle of ongoing (and more complex) situations. Solutions : * Have more consideration to 'set up' before things start getting chaotic/moving too quickly (as happens in reality). * You can't really stop time if other Players are involved (and you probably cannot 'slow' time practically either). SO that's not viable. * Perhaps have more stalling tactics for 'time to think' (and then to work the appropriate controls) * Getting useful suggestion from your NPCs can assist (Having THEM take appropriate action immediately for much of the time also could help). * Have the game have more unexpected results (thus being more chaotic and confusing everyone equally). * Majority of interactions are with 'normal' weapons and tools the Player would get used to (effective with) using and so 'special' items get used less frequently. * Minimize unrealistic 'quick switch' game mechanics (in real life, if you take the time to switch guns, the firefight frequently continues and then quickly is over, and you are DEAD). * Absolutely DO NOT speed up game interactions to be 'less boring'. Internet delays have enough problems without that problem being intentionally exaggerated (used most often even in AAA games to cover up deficiencies). * Proper cover to hide behind and hesitant enemies can give the Player a little 'time to think'. * Creativity with given resources is a good thing. --- --- --- Bookmakers (Gambling Oddsmakers) in Rapture - Ryan vs Atlas 1 to 1.3 Odds Given : Not illegal, and had 'street' conventions to hold to -- "Let the Buyer Beware", but reputation means something ... Bookmakers who welsh on bets don't stay in business for long ... (Since there were Casinos obvious in Rapture - but did the City get a 'cut' of that action?? The issue is how might you get that from a 'bookie' ??? ( and without official's corruption and such ). Associated with Loansharks, though the 'breaking legs' part of it would be an issue. ( A loan supposedly can be considered a "contract" ... So maybe if the 'rules' were 'convention' or supplied in the 'Fine Print' ???) The other kind of 'bookmaker'... well there would be those too. They would print anything if you paid them enough - witness Sofia Lamb's demented rantings being published (first editions made adequate ass-wipe for Splicers later, but then the rough paper of the later editions wasn't quite as good). --- --- --- Humourous ... ''' : After being Lobotomized, Elizabeth acts alot like Curly of the Three Stooges - "Nghang - Nghang - Nghang ... Hey Booker why are they firing at us ??? Don't they know that's dangerous?? Whoooh Whoooh Whoooooh !!!! " Hey Booker, are we going to Paris now ? I saw'd Paris once, but its like they all speak a different language there !!! Hey Booker, Tell me again about the Rabbits ... Etc ... --- --- --- '''RapTown : Perhaps another Splicer Society 'City' group (Faction) - at least an 'effort' to employ it by those involved. They all speak in rapid rythmic semi-rhymes (like rapping on a table). Interactions (as in Players having opportunities to run into them with a firefight erupting) with New Rapture (particularly when New Rapture controls Hephaestus, which these other inhabitants may desire continued access to power/heat, after the faction attempting a substitute that isn't as good or was beginning to fail). How do they make a living (like eating ??) - (a question for all Splicers actually) A whole raft of general interactive/situational responses in 'rhyme' (or close enough). Player creativity, including levity, is an important aspect of the game. Actually it might take just one talented person to generate a large set of interactive spiel (or several variations) to do this idea justice. - This suggests Yet another Asset Type TEMPLATE for the game - Culturized Interactive Spiel - with verbalizations/contextual content matching a particular 'theme' subgroup in Rapture. --- --- --- Why Columbia had to Hide, and Why the Inhabitants had Turned to Cannibalism : Contemporary naval guns could reach any altitude Columibia could fly at (that is WITHOUT quickly asphyxiating its inhabitants), and that 1900s period was when they made such guns transportable by railway. A pissed-off US government would have closed-off/inprisoned anybody materially supporting the stolen (US Government owned) flying city (forcing it to go 'pirate', and then become an even bigger target for a concerted effort). SO the 'White People' in Columbia would have seen the need to consume the 'minorities' onboard once Finks's mechanical marvels (the "Automatic Servitors") multiplied and made the serfs redundant. Now THAT would have been a much more exciting storyline (and grotesque cannibal white children are much more politically correct to shoot and blow up and dismember). "Fink's Serving Columbia" ... ITS A COOKBOOK !!!!!! --- --- --- Bring It With You : The image of people waiting on a beach holding only a suitcase for their 'Vanishing' disappearance when going to Rapture is pretty ludicrous for the majority of people bound for Rapture. Many people who came to Rapture brought alot of their stuff (possessions) with them. If you were going there for the rest of your life, what all would you bring if you could ? (Otherwise what all would you be able to get ahold of otherwise ? Buy it all when you arrive ? Not for very many immigrants.) If I was someone going to Rapture and had a Business/Craft : * For Starters would be to bring whatever Tools I used to make/do my profession work, and as many of the most needed spares and parts as possible (as they would be hard to come by later). * Second would be hard to get required Materials (you try getting esoteric wood in Rapture if you were a funiture maker ...) Stockpiling decades ahead of need can add upto alot of stuff to bring. Seeds/cuttings would be a very important asset to bring for those in several professions. * Third - Plans, Manuals, Reference Books, Patterns, and other useful information needed for the Skills/Crafts (for all forseen eventualities). Possibly make provisions to obtain new such stuff from the Surface as long as possible (Possibly build up a stockpile AFTER your business is established). * My Artworks and Decorative items/goods which were unlikely to be equalled/available (and with Rapture's likely population of artists, few might ever be 'great' or 'adequate'). Nice things likely never to be obtainable again would be brought. * Living comforts, clothing, furniture, utensils, interior decoration ... * Books, Movies, Pictures, Family Histories/momentos/papers/heirlooms * Hobby related items * Portable Wealth of course in what ever form would retain its value IN Rapture (that's whatever is left after all the moving expenses). Many people might not be wealthy enough to bring more than the basics. Many immigrants from war-torn parts of the world likely would have little to bring, or had to leave such thing behind in the chaos of those circumstances (they might be able to recover some of them subsequent to their emigration). So, many people who came may NOT have been able to bring many possessions or a large business stockpile (decades worth) even after selling off their worldly goods. Loans might be given from 'investors', or those others may buy such items to eventually become a supplier within Rapture to the people who need the otherwise hard-to-get items. Alternatives would likely be looked for, and materials could still be obtained from the Surface World for a time (though they still have to be paid for - using monies going TO the Surface). All these things vastly multiply the amount of stuff which needed to be transported and transfered into Rapture. (This transport/handling would be part of the cost paid by the immigrants). Rapture's infrastructure would be designed to facilitate this (and preferably once that use was finished, to then have a second use for all the time afterwards). - Calculate Tonnage : Scheduling - The immigration had years to take place (The Novel says that barely anyone was there yet even in 1947), and many people took time to dispose-of/marshal all their belongings for transport (which included overland travel getting it all to the sea ports used to do the transport). Warehousing and packaging needed to be done to ready it all to await shipping. (Note- containerized freight was just starting at that time in the US). It all would have been highly organized, involving Ryan's people to coordinate/schedule/complete. Amount - How many shiploads of 2000 - 5000 tons ? (via tramp freighter which wouldn't attract notice). Such cargo can be bulky, so be far short in weight of the full capacity of the ships being used. The weight also includes the rugged packaging which can easily double the load. One ton per person sounds like alot, but it really isn't. Many tons each would be more likely a number, and affluent people many many times that. People in Rapture also had to be supported WHILE the place became operational and self-supporting. SO secondary shipments also has to be added in. That of course is to be added ontop of all the continuing deliveries of construction materials, which far outweighed the personal possessions. - What Wouldn't/Couldn't be Brought : Property, Buildings, Houses, etc... (Assets which cannot easily be liquidated) But there would likely be, through Ryan's organization, a way to make sure those things were NOT sold-off in a quick wasteful fire-sale (as Ryan needs all the wealth possible brought to Rapture - to get it built and furnished, and to have its businesses operate successfully). Holding companies to slowly sell off ~20000 peoples worth of Assets - quietly and with minimal loss of value (good thing there was a boom after WW2, and returning GIs who needed to buy houses and such ...). Ryan himself was in such a position where a good part of his Surface Business Empire had to be sold off to fund the building of Rapture (and likely the fortunes of several other wealthy immigrants to make it large enough for the given story). Part of that organization would be shifted to sustain Rapture while it got its start and for quite a while afterwards. Likewise, another part of the plan would be managing those Assets that would take years to sell off (and later include the construction/shipping facilities which had to be acquired to build Rapture). --- --- --- Choices (Yeah, We Sure Had "Choices") ... ''' : Jack has another 'choice'. To simply stop moving in the direction Atlas/Fontaine (and the game writers) are pushing him. If Jack (the Player) stops short of going into Ryan's Office, ignoring Fontaine's control, then Ryan never dies by his hand, and some other unknown sequence of events follow. Jack can wander around Rapture (you can take the Bathyspheres back to places you previously were...) consuming the harvested procedes of waylaid Splicers - Forever. 'What ifs' are the meat and potatoes of some fans. It is hard to say what would have happened if Ryan had managed to make Rapture recover -- after the games story has him NOT doing that Stupid Contrived Surrender Monkey Suicide (good name for a lame 80s rock band SCSMS), and be allowed to have the adventure/challenge of rebuilding Rapture. OR even what it could/should have been without ADAM corroding/poisoning everything it touched (or having that threat be handled early as it SHOULD have been -- IF the plot hadn't required/contrived it all to be done ineptly/illogically to force the story's 'Fail-topia'). Supposedly we had 'choices', but apparently even that much-touted and celebrated "Little Sister Harvest" decision was virtually *No Choice* ('moral choices' are ones you make when you realize the actual outcomes, instead of them being unknown and determined by some simple/arbitrary equation - AND which are later found to largely have the same results either way you decide). Alternately, Who says that Jack, being the new ruler of Rapture, didn't actually bring a Golden Age - the consequences afterwards aren't yours -- as after the arbitrary math decides your fate, the rest of the story is driven by a pre-canned sequence (a static cutscene) with no 'Choice' allowed. *Maybe* I liked living in Fort Frolic after I'd "taken over", and no amount of weasel words from Atlas would make me want to 'move forward'/advance/dance-to-his-tune ... That choice is there (I already had lots of tasty ADAM by that point, whether I'd 'harvested' many Little Sisters or not.) Its 'Good to be King', instead of a Pawn. --- --- --- '''Double Nostalgia for the MMORPG : * For that 40's look and feel (big element of the original BioShocks) ... * For what must've been there in Rapture before it went to 'wrack and ruin' (and We return to OUR Rapture, and any/all seen in Flashbacks) ... --- --- --- Other Games with Creatable Content : What I had seen of Second Life : Its pay system made people NOT want to cooperate in collaboration (a disincentive) to generate & share work on new Assets. Likely the few people who might have done work for free would be put off when someone else started selling their efforts. The online gambling element was forced to be removed years ago (and at that time eliminated more than half of the Player monetary activity in that game). The BioShock MMORPG would NOT be contaminated with real money. No 'Store' (and those constantly spewed 'Buy' 'Sale' whinings and company 'Sell' efforts distracting from operations of the Actual Game). "NO" to having any payback to Players, making them only want to Sell what they put effort into producing. The actual achievement would be in collaborating to produce good Assets placed in the game. --- --- --- Audio Diary Anylysis The Fink Magic Recording Thingee : "Table Scraps" - "What secrets that I could not answer for myself ?" ' : Lemme think ..... Most of them ? Makes me wonder how many 'Songbirds' Fink went thru til he got one that worked... Takes off, malfunctions, and is now a smear of paste 25000 feet below on the ground. Start over... Frankenstein's Monsters -- you grow them like sea monkeys!! So simple. Just don't use the bell jar labeled "Abbey Normal"... Funny would be guy in 'the Songbird suit' then climbing out of it - its all Quantumz powered anyway (Fink didn't get where he is without faking many things ...) - and complaining its hot in the damned thing and wants a higher salary. ((Politically Incorrect version : a midget climbs out of the 'Songbirds' head (cockpit) and says the same.)) Technologically Fink was a caveman even as compared to 50s era Suchong. Maybe Fink had 'Tears' to the Star Trek universe to steal better stuff ?? (That woulda made a more logical plot.) The Tear to the 14th century Plague Pit didn't work out too well, and neither did that one to the Kzinti home planet (with infinite alternate universes, and with someone like Fink managing things, very few Columbias survived for long ... Truly). Making something work in a laboratory (if you can even get THAT far) is very different than making a working consumer product. Too bad the game designers didn't CONSULT some 'Experts' on that, like the game company people claim they did about 'Quantum' Physics (and with the way they ignored the realities of that theoretical science, perhaps it WAS all much the same for alot of other things ...). Fink covering up alot of techno fakery WOULD have been a nice side story. - BTW - this has a 1896 date when an earlier diary in 1894 has Fink seeing Suchong (Audio-Diary Out of the Thin Air) -- which means there is a a rather odd time stretch phenomenon here (or they just f#$%ed up or didn't much really care - ''which generally seems the case). NOTE - also events sloppily being inserted too early : for when the US Government was still supposed to be in control of this Show City, and not the expanded monstrosity it became once Comstock took control. ((Most players too busy endlessly slaughtering 'enemies' to care about any such illogic, even if they could realize it --- seriously it would have served them better to have less useless faulty explaining, and more work on better combat mechanics)) --- --- --- '''The BS1 Ending - Fontaine's Evil Badguy Lair Setting : Cost him a pretty penny to make all that (Fontaine wasn't Al Capone here, you know) . So what would that placeand have been for originally ? (Testing/manufacturing facilities for Big Daddies and such we already had elsewhere). Suddenly its some HUGE Plan C for Fontaine (building a massive Submarine to escape in might've been so much simpler). Boss Fight... Its a Game... Yah, Right. Though that museum might've been an even better place (idea - just one level lotsa with destructable scenery - hmm that was hard to come up with...) - and with more justification for the settings existance (less contrived). After Fontaine's demise, all his Rapture assets were forfeit. Whatever THIS place was (rather hard to hide), it might have (a little imagination at work) been mostly dismantled and scrapped (sold to highest bidder - "Seized" and "Auction Tommorrow" signs all over) to help pay reparations to all of Fontaine's victims and the expenses his crimes cost the City. That Amazing automation with all this complex stuff and no technicians to operate it all. Yes, its just a 'scene' they visualized', probably easier than having the "Boss" NPC figure do lots more animations and having some better scripted battle actions/strategies/sounds (done to be a REAL challenge to the Player, instead of just a ton of Hitpoints to overcome). --- --- --- --- ---